


going through changes

by madameofmusic



Series: Tumblr Fic [7]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Future Fic, M/M, Post-Graduation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-22
Updated: 2016-11-22
Packaged: 2018-09-13 21:22:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9142834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madameofmusic/pseuds/madameofmusic
Summary: Whiskey sees Tango again at their reunion, years after they broke up.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I was listening to “Still” by Seinabo Sey and ”Changes” by Langhorne Slim and the Law when I was writing this. From [this](http://whiskeytangofrogman.tumblr.com/post/153086943893/super-sappy-lines-prompt-list) list of prompts. 
> 
> Whiskey doesn't have a name yet, so I'm going with Mason Whittman for now. Don't ask me why, I have no clue.

Whiskey stares down into his glass of flat Dr. Pepper, and regrets to coming to his ten year reunion with every fiber of his being. 

Apparently, in the ten years since he’d graduated, he’d forgotten that the only reasons he’d enjoyed going here broke up with him eight years ago or graduated ahead of him. Said first reason didn’t even seem to be here. 

He takes another sip from the glass, and tries not to make a face. He didn’t even  _ like _ soda in the first place, but he also didn’t have as high of an alcohol tolerance since he’d graduated, and didn’t want to look sloppy in front of all these people he only vaguely remembers or never knew in the first place. 

“Whiskey?” Whiskey’s heart drops to his knees, knows for a fact only one person here ever called him by that old nickname from his hockey days. He turns. There’s Tony. 

“Hey. Tony.” 

Tony grins at him, smile still like sunlight. “How have you been? I haven’t seen you in forever!” 

Whiskey’s fingers tighten around the plastic cup in his hand, and he balls his other hand into a fist inside of his pocket. “Fine.” 

Tony steps closer, leans against the wall next to Whiskey, angles his body closer. “Are you still working for the-” 

Whiskey nods. “Yeah.” Tony looks at him like he’s expecting Whiskey to say more, say  _ something _ . Whiskey sighs internally. “Are you still working at the elementary school?” 

Tony lights up even more, thousand-watt smile amping up to a million. “Yeah! Actually, they have me working on getting my administration certification, because…” Whiskey lets Tony’s words wash over him, humming and nodding at all the right places. “I was hoping you might be here, Whiskey.” Whiskey tunes back in. 

“What was that?” 

Tony smiles, abashed. “I hoped you’d be here. I wanted to catch up, see how you were. You never…” He trails off, and lifts a shoulder. “You never called me after you moved.” 

Whiskey winces. “Yeah, well. I guess I got busy.” He mumbles, punctuating it with another sip from his glass. The soda’s almost gone now, and maybe that’ll be his exit away from this conversation he’d been avoiding for almost a decade now. 

Tony nods, like it makes sense, but his facial expression ( _ confused, and a little disheartened, just like after every time they hooked up and Whiskey split right after until eventually he stopped because Tony always looked happier if Whiskey stayed the night, and it never made sense, and- _ ) says otherwise. “Right. You still could have, like, shot me a text or something. My number hasn’t changed.” 

Whiskey nods, a jerk of his head. “Sure. I’ll remember to do that.” They both know that’s a lie.

Tony licks his lips, looks over Whiskey’s shoulder. “Well I-” 

“I should be-” They both look at each other, and Whiskey’s mouth ticks up at the corner. “You first.” 

“I should be going. There’s a few more people I wanted to talk to before I left.” Tony says, pushing off the wall, and swallowing, hard, expression still caught halfway between happy to see him, and sad that Whiskey apparently still hasn’t changed. 

Whiskey nods, feels like there’s a lump in his throat the size of Kansas. “Of course.” 

Tony steps away. Whiskey’s moves without thinking, catching him barely a foot later. “Wait.” 

Tony looks over his shoulder, arching an eyebrow. “Don’t…” Whiskey sighs. “Just. Can we maybe go to a bar, or something? I do want to catch up with you, but you know.” He waves his hand containing the soda, and it sloshes onto his wrist. “This isn’t my scene.” 

The sadness fades away from Tony’s expression. “Yeah, sure. Let me just grab my coat.” Whiskey lets him go, sets his drink on a nearby table, and meets him by the door. 

They walk in silence for the block it takes them to get to the nearest bar, one they used to hang out in before Whiskey moved and ruined everything. Whiskey hears Tony start to say something a few times, but he never gets any further than opening his mouth. 

Whiskey offers to grab them a table while Tony grabs them a few beers. He slides into a corner booth, and resists the urge to bolt while he still can. Tony comes back and slides a Bud Light over to Whiskey, taking the seat catty-corner to him. “So.”

Whiskey takes a long sip from his beer. “So.”

“How’s work?” Tony asks, fingers tapping a soundless beat on the table’s surface. “Are you still at that engineering firm?”

Whiskey nods, feels a twinge in his chest. That engineering firm was the reason they’d broken up in the first place. “Yeah. I’m on track to become a lead.” He says, white knuckling his bottle. “You?”

Tony shrugs. “I’m still at the elementary school. They moved me down to second grade a couple years back, but it’s good.” 

They sit in silence for a few beats, Whiskey resisting the urge to chug his beer and order a shot like his nerves want him to, and Tony watching him quietly. 

“Mason?” Tony’s voice echoing Whiskey’s given name sounds unnatural. Tony’d never called him by anything other than Whiskey. 

“Tango.” Whiskey makes an attempt at lightening the situation by calling Tony his old hockey nickname. 

Tony cracks a half-smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “What happened?” 

“What do you mean?” Whiskey asks, knowing  _ exactly _ what Tony means. Tony knows it too, if the even stare he levels at Whiskey is any indicator. Whiskey sighs. “I moved. I though you’d… come with me. But… It’s whatever.” He shrugs. 

Tony looks taken aback. “You wanted me to come with you?”

Whiskey shrugs again, and then nods. “Yeah.” He says, quietly, voice barely louder than the music echoing from the old jukebox in the corner.

“Why didn’t you  _ ask me  _ then?” Tony sounds angry, but tired, like he’d thought about this a lot in the eight years since they’d broken up. He probably had thought about it a lot, trying to figure out why Whiskey had up and left him.

Whiskey wondered why, sometimes, too. “It’s not like we were dating though, I guess. But, Whiskey, you were my  _ best _ friend. I  _ missed _ you.” 

Whiskey frowns. “Wait, what?” His grip loosens on his bottle, and he wrings his hands together to stop the oncoming cramps from gripping onto it so hard. “We were dating.”

Tony raises an eyebrow. “Really, Whiskey? Because I was pretty certain you thought we were just, I dunno. Fuckbuddies.”

Whiskey shakes his head, adamantly. “I thought we were dating. I thought…” He trails off, frowning. He didn’t ever…  _ formally _ ask Tony to be his boyfriend, but he’d figured after four years of messing around, and three years of being domestic, Tony had just. Known. “Shit.” He mumbles. 

Tony laughs, joylessly. “Yeah.”

Whiskey looks up at him. “I was in love with you. If that helps.” 

Tony lifts his shoulder half-heartedly. “Not really. Not now.” 

Whiskey stands. “Can we walk?”

Tony frowns, stares at Whiskey for a second, thinks about objecting, and then sighs and stands too. “Fine. We can walk back to the hotel. I have an early flight, and I should be back already anyway.” 

Whiskey throws a tip on the table and holds the door open for Tony as he passes. They walk in silence again, the chilly air nipping at Whiskey’s nose. 

The hotel ballroom is nearly empty when they pass it, only a few stragglers left milling about. Everyone else is back in their rooms, or at a different hotel, or somewhere else. Whiskey’s room is on the third floor. Tony walks to the elevator, and when they get inside, he hits the button for eleven. “Tony.” 

Tony looks over. “Yeah?”

“Did you- do you,” he stops, and then bites his lip. “Do you think maybe we can work something out?” Even asking something so boldly makes Whiskey anxious. His heart pounds in his throat as Tony stares at him, contemplating. 

“Maybe.” Tony says. “Was there ever anyone else?” 

Whiskey lets out a sharp bark of laughter. “There  _ never _ was anyone else, Tony. No one.” 

Tony steps out of the elevator, and waits for Whiskey to follow him. “It’s been the same, for me.” He says, stopping in front of a room a few doors down the hall. 

Whiskey steps closer, settles a hand awkwardly on Tony’s shoulder. “I-” Tony steps closer, and looks up at him. Whiskey still has a bare few inches on him, just enough to make Tony lift his chin to meet Whiskey’s eyes. “Tony-”

“Why haven’t you kissed me yet? If you still like me so much?” It sounds curious, but there’s more there. Tony was always good at that, hiding behind childlike curiosity, making himself seem more innocent than he was. 

Whiskey swallows, hard. “It’s not too… soon?” 

Tony huffs, and then leans up, closer, their lips only an inch apart. “Shut up.” 

Whiskey shuts up, and meets Tony in the middle, hands wrapping around Tony’s neck. Tony pulls him in by the hips, and smiles into the kiss. He pulls away a few moments later, and grins, fully now. “I missed you.”

Whiskey smiles. “Yeah.” 

Tony steps away fully though, and runs a hand through his hair with a sigh. “I really do have an early flight. But my number hasn’t changed, if you still have it.”

Whiskey nods. He’d never had the heart to delete it, even through two different phones and almost a decade apart. “I will.” 

“‘Night, Whiskey.” 

Whiskey lifts a hand, fights to keep the grin off his face and fails, spectacularly. “Night, Tango.”

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt me [here](http://whiskeytangofrogman.tumblr.com/ask).


End file.
